The Singin’ in the Rain actor, who rose to fame with her youthful
exuberance in 1950s musicals, had a prolific and ambitious career and
resilience to match.

When Debbie Reynolds, wearing a skimpy pink flapper’s dress, burst
out of an enormous cake at a Hollywood party in Singin’ in the Rain (1952), she
simultaneously burst into screen stardom.

In fact, it was the sixth
film appearance of Reynolds, who has died aged 84, but her first starring role.
The casting of the inexperienced 19-year-old was a risk taken by Gene Kelly and
Stanley Donen, the co-directors of the classic MGM musical about the early days
of talkies. The gamble paid off, but not without some sweat and strain.

“There were times when Debbie
was more interested in playing the French horn somewhere in the San Fernando
Valley or attending a Girl Scout meeting,” Kelly recalled. “She didn’t realise
she was a movie star all of a sudden.” Reynolds herself admitted later: “I was
so confused. It seemed dumb to me ... reporting to the studio at 6am, six days
a week and shooting till midnight. I didn’t know anything about show business.

“I learned a lot from
Gene,” she added. “He is a perfectionist and a disciplinarian – the most
exacting director I’ve ever worked for … Every so often, he would yell at me
and make me cry. But it took a lot of patience for him to work with someone who
had never danced before. It’s amazing that I could keep up with him and Donald O’Connor. This little girl from Burbank sure
had a lot of spirit.”

Daughter of Maxene (nee
Harmon) and Ray Reynolds, she was born Mary Frances Reynolds in El Paso, Texas.
Her father was a railroad mechanic and carpenter, who lost his job at the
height of the Great Depression. After living from hand to mouth for a while,
the family moved to Burbank, California when her father got a job with the
Southern Pacific railroad. While at high school, Reynolds entered and won the
Miss Burbank beauty contest. One of the requirements was “talent”, which she
fulfilled by lip-syncing to a record of Betty Hutton singing I’m a Square in the Social
Circle, which earned her a Warner Bros contract. (It was Jack Warner who gave
her the name of Debbie.) But after a bit part in the Bette Davis comedy June
Bride (1948), and playing June Haver’s bubbly young sister in The
Daughter of Rosie O’Grady (1950), she took up a contract with MGM, where she
flourished, on and off, throughout the 50s and early 60s.

Prior to Singin’ in the
Rain, Reynolds was noticed, in what amounted to a cameo, lip-syncing I Wanna Be
Loved By You to the singer Helen Kane’s voice in Three Little Words (1950). In
Two Weeks with Love (1950), as a younger sister again, this time Jane Powell’s,
the cute 5 ft 2in Reynolds stopped the show with the 6ft 3in Carleton Carpenter
in two numbers: Abba Dabba Honeymoon and Row, Row, Row, with her nifty tap
dancing belying her statements of never having danced before Singin’ in the
Rain.

Reynolds’s lively opening
Charleston number in her breakthrough film has her singing and dancing All I Do
Is Dream of You with a dozen other chorus girls; she keeps up brilliantly with
Kelly and O’Connor in the cheery matinal greeting Good Mornin’, danced and sung around a living room – even
though during some of the more challenging steps, she stands by and lets the
two men dance around her – and she is touching in the lyrical duet You Were
Meant For Me with Kelly, who switches on coloured lights and a gentle wind
machine on a sound stage to create a make-believe atmosphere.

In the plot, a silent
screen star, Lina Lamont (Jean Hagen, unforgettable), has a risibly squeaky
voice for sound movies and, unknown to the public, is dubbed by Kathy Selden
(Reynolds). In reality, however, Debbie’s singing voice was dubbed by the
uncredited Betty Noyes, and Hagen herself provided the speaking voice for
Debbie, dubbing her on screen because Reynolds was then handicapped by what
Donen called “that terrible western noise”.

An effervescent Reynolds
went on to star in a series of charming youthful musicals, this time using her
own pleasant singing voice. I Love Melvin (1953) was one of the best, with
Reynolds paired again with O’Connor. The film opens with A Lady Loves, a
musical dream sequence in which Debbie sees herself as a big movie star courted
by Robert Taylor. This gives her a chance to be classy, in a tongue-in-cheek
manner. Later she features in a witty acrobatic number entitled Saturday
Afternoon Before the Game in which she is dressed as a ball being tossed around
by a football team.

There followed The Affairs
of Dobie Gillis, Give a Girl a Break (both 1953), Susan Slept Here, Athena
(both 1954), Hit the Deck and The Tender Trap (both 1955). In the latter, a
romantic comedy, Frank Sinatra is a confirmed bachelor and Reynolds is
determined to trap him into marriage. In the same year, 23-year-old Reynolds
married the 27-year-old crooner Eddie Fisher. They became the darlings of the
fan magazines, and co-starred in Bundle of Joy (1956), a feeble musical remake
of the 1939 Ginger Rogers-David Niven comedy, which
capitalised on their personalities as a happy young couple and the rumours of
her pregnancy. (Reynolds gave birth to a daughter, Carrie, in October 1956.)

Meanwhile with the film
musical in a moribund state, Reynolds showed that she could get by in straight
acting roles, the first proof being in The Catered Affair (1956), a slice of
Hollywood realism, with Reynolds as the daughter of working-class parents
(Bette Davis and Ernest Borgnine). This failed at the box office, unlike Tammy
and the Bachelor (1957), which was one of Reynolds’s greatest successes, the
theme song of which (“I hear the cottonwoods whisp’rin’ above, Tammy! Tammy!
Tammy’s in love!”) remained high in the hit parade for months. This
entertaining piece of whimsy gave Reynolds, as a backwoods girl in love with a
wealthy man (Leslie Nielsen), what was an archetypal role – a naive girl thrust
into a sophisticated world … and triumphing.

In 1957, Eddie and Debbie
were best man and matron of honour at the wedding in Acapulco of Fisher’s
lifelong friend the impresario Mike Todd to Elizabeth Taylor. A little over a
year later, Todd was killed in a plane crash, and Taylor sought solace in
Fisher’s arms, causing a huge Hollywood scandal. Taylor, who had been cast as
the Grieving Widow, now found herself in the role of the Vamp, while Reynolds
was widely and sympathetically portrayed as the Wronged Woman. However, the
outraged moralistic public was unaware that the Fisher-Reynolds marriage was
already in tatters, although they continued to play America’s sweethearts in
public, mainly because Debbie was pregnant with their son Todd (named after
Mike) and they were worried that divorce would damage their popularity ratings.
But divorce was inevitable and, on 12 May 1959, Taylor, who had converted to
Judaism when she married Todd, married Fisher at a synagogue in Las Vegas.

Despite being the divorced
mother of two small children, Reynolds was never more active. In 1959, she was
among the top 10 Hollywood box-office stars and appeared four movies that year:
The Mating Game, Say One for Me, The Gazebo and It Started With a Kiss. None
were world-beaters, but they got by on her effortless charm.

In November 1960, Reynolds
married the millionaire shoe-store magnate Harry Karl, and pursued her career
with added vigour, though her roles hardly varied, whether she was playing Fred
Astaire’s nubile daughter in The Pleasure of His Company or a feisty young
widow with two children in The Second Time Around (both 1961) or a pioneer
woman in the sprawling Cinerama western How the West Was Won (1962), in which
she is the only character who makes it through from the first reel to the last,
ageing from 16 to 90.

In The Unsinkable Molly
Brown (1964), for which she was Oscar-nominated, Reynolds throws herself around
energetically in the title role of the backwoods girl (shades of Tammy, but
with added robustness) who enters high society and survives the Titanic,
displaying everything she had learned from past musicals, especially in the
dance numbers Belly Up to the Bar, Boys and I Ain’t Down Yet.

After playing a man
resurrected as a woman in the tiresome Goodbye Charlie (1964), and the title
role in The Singing Nun (1966), the mawkish biopic of the guitar-strumming
Belgian nun who composed the hit song Dominique, she finally managed to bid farewell
to her ingenue “tomboy” persona and portray a mature adult in Divorce American
Style (1967). A rare Hollywood comedy with teeth, it cast Reynolds and Dick Van
Dyke against type as a squabbling couple, who utter not a word as they prepare
for bed in the best sequence. “That was a really hard part to get,” Reynolds
commented. “The producer didn’t want me. He didn’t think I could play an
ordinary married woman. I think he thought I had to be all ‘diva’d up’ and in a
musical.”

When Reynolds, now in her mid-30s,
saw her film career gradually slowing to a virtual halt, she reinvented herself
as a cabaret performer, appearing most frequently on stage in Las Vegas.
Reynolds also shifted her attention to US television starting with 18 episodes
of The Debbie Reynolds Show (1969-70), a sitcom resembling I Love Lucy, in
which she played a suburban housewife with ambitions to become a newspaper
reporter. She continued to appear regularly on TV for the next four decades.
What’s the Matter With Helen? (1971), a campy murder tale set in 1930s
Hollywood in which Reynolds and Shelley Winters run a school for budding Shirley
Temples, would be her last feature film for 20 years.

By the early 1970s, her
marriage to Karl was heading for the rocks, mainly because of his infidelities
but also because he had gambled away both their fortunes. Luckily, Reynolds was
still bankable and, immediately after her divorce in 1973, she made her Broadway
debut in a revival of the 1919 musical hit Irene. The show, which ran for 18
months, gained Reynolds a Tony nomination, and was the first of several stage
musicals she would appear in over the years: Annie Get Your Gun, The Unsinkable
Molly Brown and Woman of the Year among them.

Reynolds returned to the
big screen in the 90s, where she showed that she had lost none of her comic
timing playing a number of sweet-voiced monster mums, having maintained her
doll-like looks. These included Albert Brooks’s Mother (1996), her first
leading film role for 27 years, In & Out (1997) and Zack and Reba (1998),
as well as appearing in 10 episodes of Will and Grace on TV, portraying Grace’s
mother, a would-be star whose propensity for breaking out into show tunes and impressions
dismays her daughter. Reynolds was also known as Princess Leia’s mother, after Carrie Fisher found fame in the Star Wars movies.

Aside from performing,
Reynolds had many other interests. In 1991, she bought a hotel and casino in
Las Vegas, where she displayed part of her extensive collection of vintage
Hollywood props, sets and costumes. But after her marriage to the real-estate
developer Richard Hamlett ended in 1996, she was forced to declare bankruptcy
the following year. She later reopened her museum in Hollywood. Reynolds was
also an indefatigable fund-raiser for The Thalians (a charitable organisation
that provides mental health services from pediatrics to geriatrics in Los
Angeles).

Carrie Fisher died the day before her mother, after a
suspected heart attack on a flight from London to Los Angeles. Reynolds is
survived by her son, Todd.

Debbie Reynolds (Mary Frances Reynolds), actor
and singer, born 1 April 1932; died 28 December 2016.

The Star
Wars actor, who became an acclaimed writer, dies in Los Angeles four days after
reportedly suffering heart attack on flight from London

Carrie Frances Fisher, actor and writer, born
21 October 1956; died 27 December 2016.

Carrie Fisher, the actor best known for her
portrayal of Princess Leia in the Star Wars films and her unflinching
self-honesty that contrasted with the artifice of Hollywood celebrity, has died
in Los Angeles. She was 60 years old.

Her death came days after
she was reported to have suffered a heart attack on a flight from London to Los
Angeles last Friday. The news was confirmed in a statement released on behalf
of her daughter, Billie Lourd, who said Fisher was “loved by the world” and
“will be profoundly missed”.

Fisher’s career was
characterized by her willingness to acknowledge, challenge and satirize the
stereotypes of her upbringing and privilege. As the daughter of two Hollywood
stars, Debbie Reynolds and the late singer Eddie Fisher,
she brought awareness and humor to her work, whether in film or in numerous
books that tracked and reviewed her fortunes in life – or what she herself had
termed “what it’s like to live an all-too-exciting life”.

Paying tribute to her
daughter, her mother described her as “amazing”. Reynolds, 84, wrote on
Facebook: “Thank you to everyone who has embraced the gifts and talents of my
beloved and amazing daughter. I am grateful for your thoughts and prayers that
are now guiding her to her next stop. Love Carries Mother”.

Fisher’s Star Wars co-star Harrison Ford, 74, said in a
statement: “Carrie was one-of-a-kind ... brilliant, original. Funny and
emotionally fearless. She lived her life, bravely. My thoughts are with her
daughter Billie, her mother Debbie, her brother Todd and her many friends. We
will all miss her.”

Among the first to react to
her death was Mark Hamill, who starred as Luke Skywalker alongside Fisher in
the Star Wars films. He tweeted “no words #Devastated” and a photograph of them
together in character.

Earlier, announcing
Fisher’s death in Los Angeles, Billie Lourd’s publicist said: “It is with a
very deep sadness that Billie Lourd confirms that her beloved mother Carrie
Fisher passed away at 8.55 this morning. She was loved by the world and she
will be missed profoundly. Our entire family thanks you for your thoughts and
prayers.”
She had experienced medical trouble during a flight from London on Friday and
was treated by paramedics immediately after the plane landed in Los Angeles,
according to reports. The celebrity website TMZ, which first reported Fisher
was unwell, had cited anonymous sources claiming the actor suffered a heart
attack.

Todd Fisher, her brother,
said over the weekend that many details about her condition or what caused the
medical emergency were unknown.

“We have to wait and be
patient,” he said. “We have so little information ourselves.”Fisher had shot to stardom
in 1977 upon the release of the original Star Wars, a movie that changed
Hollywood and a franchise that continues to captivate new audiences around the
world. She revisited the role as the leader of a galactic rebellion in sequels,
including last year’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

Fisher was also celebrated
for her comedic accounts, sometimes semi-fictionalized, of life in the
celebrity fishbowl of Hollywood and her personal struggles.

Her screenplay Postcards
from the Edge, which dealt candidly with issues of mental health and addiction,
was adapted into a 1990 film starring Shirley MacLaine and Meryl Streep.

More books followed,
including Delusions of Grandma, Surrender the Pink, The Best Awful, Shockaholic
and this year’s autobiography, The Princess Diarist.Earlier this year, Fisher
was honored by an association at Harvard, which awarded her its annual
outstanding lifetime achievement award in cultural humanism in recognition of
her “bravely honest” literary career.Ever ready to satirize
herself, she has even played “Carrie Fisher” a few times, as in David
Cronenberg’s dark Hollywood sendup Maps to the Stars and in an episode of Sex
and the City.In the past 15 years,
Fisher also had a somewhat prolific career as a television guest star, recently
in the Amazon show Catastrophe, as the mother of Rob Delaney’s lead, and
perhaps most memorably as a has-been comedy legend on 30 Rock.Her one-woman show, Wishful
Drinking, which she performed on and off across the country beginning in 2006,
was turned into a book, made its way to Broadway in 2009 and was captured for
HBO in 2010.

Little was off-limits in
the show. She discussed the scandal that engulfed her superstar parents (her
father ran off with film star Elizabeth Taylor); her brief marriage to the
singer Paul Simon; the time the father of her daughter left her for a man; and
the day she woke up next to the dead body of a platonic friend who had
overdosed in her bed.

“I’m a product of Hollywood
inbreeding. When two celebrities mate, something like me is the result,” she
said in the show. At another point, she cracked: “I don’t have a problem with
drugs so much as I have a problem with sobriety.

“People relate to aspects
of my stories, and that’s nice for me because then I’m not all alone with it,”
she said. “Also, I do believe you’re only as sick as your secrets. If that’s
true, I’m just really healthy.”Fisher’s own romantic life
was characterized by drama. Her marriage to Simon in the early 80s ended after
11 months. She later married the Hollywood agent Bryan Lourd. They had a
daughter, Billie. That union ended with Lourd leaving Fisher for a man.

“I turn people gay. That’s
what I do. It is an unusual superpower,” she told the Baltimore Sun in 2012.Her latest book, The
Princess Diarist, was well-received, and made news when she disclosed that she
and Ford had had an affair on the set of Star Wars. She told People magazine:
“It was Han and Leia during the week, and Carrie and Harrison during the
weekend.”

Fisher had bipolar disorder
for which she received electroshock therapy. She chain-smoked, confessed to a
love of LSD and her compulsions led to addictions to cocaine and painkillers.Fisher had also recently
started writing an advice column published in the Guardian. One reader wrote to
her seeking advice for dealing with bipolar disorder. Fisher commended the reader for asking for
help and said: “You
reached out to me – that took courage. Now build on that.”

Fisher was born in Beverly
Hills, California, in 1956, to her Hollywood royalty parents. When Fisher was
two years old, her father left the family for Taylor, the widow of her father’s
best friend, Mike Todd. The following year, her mother married Harry Karl,
owner of a shoe store chain.

Fisher made her film debut in the 1975 comedy Shampoo, starring Warren
Beatty, Julie Christie and Goldie Hawn. Two years later she was picked to play
Princess Leia in Star Wars.

Other roles followed, but
none came close to matching the attention she received for the sci-fi series.

Wham! singer who went on to a solo career and became Britain’s biggest
pop starof the 80s

George Michael (Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou), singer and songwriter,
born 25 June 1963; died 25 December 2016

Pop superstar famous for hits including Last
Christmas, Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go and Careless Whisper sold more than 100m
albums

George Michael will be remembered for his work as a prominent gay rights
campaigner as well as for his glittering pop career.

The performer had been a fervent support of LGBT issues.

George Michael, who has died aged 53 of heart
failure, was Britain’s biggest pop star of the 1980s, first with the pop duo
Wham! and then as a solo artist. After Wham! made their initial chart
breakthrough with the single Young Guns (Go for It) in 1982, Michael’s
songwriting gift brought them giant hits including Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go
and Careless Whisper, and they became leading lights of the 80s boom in British
pop music, alongside Culture Club and Duran Duran. His first solo album, Faith
(1987), sold 25m copies, and Michael sold more than 100m albums worldwide with
Wham! and under his own name.

Michael remained a major figure in the music industry even when his
record releases slowed to a trickle in the later part of his career, and a
loyal fan base ensured that his concert tours always sold out. However, from
the late 1990s onwards he was beset by a string of personal crises and clashes
with the law caused by drug use. He had always felt ambivalent about the
demands of stardom, and found it difficult to balance his celebrity status with
his private life. After years of concealing his homosexuality, he eventually
came out in 1998, after being arrested for engaging in a “lewd act” in a public
lavatory in Beverly Hills, California.

He was born Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou in Finchley, north London. His
father was a Greek Cypriot restaurateur, Kyriacos Panayiotou, who had married
Lesley Angold, an English dancer. The family moved to Radlett in Hertfordshire,
and George attended Bushey Meads school, where he became close friends with
Andrew Ridgeley. The pair formed a ska-influenced quintet, the Executive, in 1979,
then in 1981 re-emerged as a duo, Wham!. They recorded some demos of their
songs (written by Michael), and were promptly signed by the independent label
Innervision.

The 12 Days of Christmas start on Christmas Day and
last until the evening of the 5th January - also known as Twelfth Night. The
12 Days have been celebrated in Europe since before the middle ages and were a
time of celebration.

The 12 Days each
traditionally celebrate a feast day for a saint and/or have different
celebrations:

Day 2 (26th December also known asBoxing Day): St Stephen’s Day. He was the first Christian martyr
(someone who dies for their faith). It's also the day when the Christmas Carol 'Good King Wenceslas' takes place.

Boxing Day takes place on December
26th and is only celebrated in a few countries; mainly ones historically
connected to the UK (such as Canada, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand)
and in many European countries. In Germany it is known as "Zweite Feiertag”
(which means 'second celebration') and also “Zweiter Weihnachtsfeiertag” which
translates as Boxing Day (although it doesn’t literally mean that)!

It was started in the UK about 800 years ago, during the Middle Ages. It
was the day when the alms box, collection boxes for the poor often kept in
churches, were traditionally opened so that the contents could be distributed
to poor people. Some churches still open these boxes on Boxing Day.

It might have been the Romans that first brought this type of collecting
box to the UK, but they used them to collect money for the betting games which
they played during their winter celebrations!

InHolland, some
collection boxes were made out of a rough pottery called 'earthenware' and were
shaped like pigs. Perhaps this is where we get the term 'Piggy Bank'!

It was also traditional that servants got the day off to celebrate
Christmas with their families on Boxing Day. Before World War II, it was common
for working people (such as milkmen and butchers) to travel round their
delivery places and collect their Christmas box or tip. This tradition has now
mostly stopped and any Christmas tips, given to people such as postal workers
and newspaper delivery children, are not normally given or collected on Boxing
Day.

Boxing Day has now
become another public holiday in countries such as theUK,Canada,AustraliaandNew
Zealand. It is also the traditional day thatPantomimesstarted to play.

There are also often
sports played on Boxing Day in the UK, especially horse racing and football
matches!
It's also when shops traditionally had big sales after Christmas in the UK
(like Black Friday in the USA).

The 26th December is
also St. Stephen's Day. Just to confuse things, there are two St. Stephens
in history! The first St. Stephen is believed to have been a very early
follower of Jesus and he is said to have been the first Christian Martyr (a
person who dies for their religious beliefs). The Bible says that Stephen (who
was a Jew) was stoned to death by some other Jews (who didn't believe in
Jesus).

The second St. Stephen was a Missionary, in Sweden, in the 800s. He
loved all animals but particularly horses (perhaps why there is traditionally
horse racing on boxing day). He was also a martyr and was killed by pagans in
Sweden. InGermanythere was a tradition that horses
would be ridden around the inside of the church during the St. Stephen's Day
service!

St. Stephen's Day (or 'the feast of Stephen') is when the Carol 'Good King Wenceslas' is set. It's about helping the
poor - so it has a strong connection to Boxing Day.

United
States international Alex Morgan has signed half-season contract with Olympique Lyonnais of
France, through
the end of the European season 2016-2017. “Why
I’m going to play in Lyon” by Alex Morgan

Asyou
may have heard by now, I’ve decided to head to France and join the
Olympique Lyonnais football club for the conclusion of their 2016–17 season.

This was not an easy
decision for me. But after a few weeks of deliberation, I finally made this
decision during a belated honeymoon that I recently took with my husband,
Servando, in Europe.

I will be leaving Servando and
my family (and our dog, Blue) behind, and I know from years of experience that
phone calls and FaceTime are not a fun way to stay connected. I also know that
our U.S. Women’s National Team is in a critical place at the moment, as we
fight for what’s fair in a new CBA, and that it will be more difficult for me
to help lead from abroad. I know, too, that The Pride and our incredible fans
will be opening a state-of-the-art new stadium without me, and that I will miss
the early part of the season. All of those things made it very difficult for me
to make this decision.

So why Lyon … and why now?

First, Lyon is a team
that’s world-renowned for excellence, with a roster that includes many of
the greatest players in the world. In fact, Lyon won all three possible titles
last season: Champions League, French League and the Coupe de France. They are
committed to growing women’s soccer and provide the women with first-class facilities
and an unparalleled training environment on par with the men’s team.

hey recently opened a new
stadium that holds 60,000 people, and the training facility is right next
door — perfect grass fields, covered fields for when it rains, beautiful
locker rooms, everything you need, really, to create an environment
for success. And, of course, again, the players on the team are among the best
footballers in the world. Everyone on OL plays for their respective
national teams, so the training there is just phenomenal. You have to
bring your best every day if you want to earn a starting spot.

As for the timing of my move,
I’ve agreed to play in France starting next month and to return home to Orlando
and play for the Pride after Lyon’s season ends in June. In addition,
I plan to be available for all U.S. National Team games.

My motivation
is pretty simple. I hope that this change will help push my game to
another level. I hope that training with these incredible athletes each day,
and learning a unique style of play, is exactly what I need, and that it will
help me find that next gear. Importantly, I will also be immersed in a
soccer culture that I believe is precisely what I need at this point in my
career. It has always been a dream of mine to “live” soccer and to compete
in the Champions League.

This move
will not be easy, though. Orlando has been so good to my family and me.
Servando and I have set down roots here. It’s our home. So I’ve struggled
with knowing that I’ll need to be gone for a bit, because of how much
I love my team, this city, the entire community.

It’s so
wonderful playing in a town that you feel connected to, and for a club that
really invests in its women’s side. I couldn’t ask for anything more, and
I’m committed to Orlando. Just as I’m committed 100% to the
National Team.

Those things
won’t change, but right now I need to follow my heart.

To get to
this level, you have to have a great deal of inner drive. And sometimes that
drive just takes over. When it does, you need to go with it, or risk losing the
very thing that helped to make you great.

I’m 27 years old.

I’m in my prime right now. But my
prime isn’t going to last forever.

I’m not looking to coast. Just going
through the motions isn’t something I’ll ever be comfortable with.

I have big goals.

I want to be the best player in
the United States … the best player in the world.

So, as much as I love living and
training and playing in Orlando, I’ve decided to take a huge risk and
bet on myself.

I want my fans to know how much I
love and appreciate them, and that this move, at the end of the day, means I’m
going to come back better than ever. It means I’m going to come back
knowing that I took a risk in life in order to become the very best soccer
player I can be.

So I just want to ask for your
continued support and encouragement. It truly means the world to me, and
it always helps motivate me to get better. I promise you, it’s
something that I will never take for granted.